Outer Limits D&D 5E campaign

Luckily the party managed to grab a few things on their way out before they were buried by rubble. They got some of the strange devices scattered around the tower, presumably weapons that the half-dragons were using. They also managed to rescue Celasaer Galinor aka “Gentle Morning Flower” aka the weird tattooed muscled elf blacksmith. They also captured one half-dragon alive but Namzeru had escaped.

The bodies of the slain half-dragons staggered to their feet and begin walking off, relentlessly making their way north. It seems the fancy armour they were wearing was fused to the their bodies and was now returning itself somewhere. (Presumably the capitol city where Tiamat resides.)

The group learned that the half-dragons who rule over this world travel by magical portals called “Tiamat’s hallways”, magical pathways that connect far distance across the realm. When the portal opens and closes it unleashes a blast of fire/ice/poison/lightning/acid which leaves a scar on the land.

While interrogating the half-dragon captive, Keyleth Nailo unleashed a devastating spell that killed the captive before they could gain any information.

When they returned to town they found the historian Jamas Freeve had left his notes unattended on a table. Keyleth Nailo peaked at his notes and learnt a devastating secret: Tiamat has transformed all the Elves who survived the war into half-dragons and enslaved them. And the Giant clans who tried to resist her were turned in deformed monsters now known as the Forlorn.

Jamas later he explained each day and night is exactly 10 hours long, and the weeks are ten days. The day is divided into a “breath in” for each of Tiamat’s heads (cold, fire, poison, lightning, acid) and a “breath out” after 5 breath ins. Days are just first, second, and so on. The year is roughly divided into seasons and no one has been keeping track of years. The statue of Tiamat outside keeps track of the hours.

Somehow they learnt of a nearby town called Serpent’s Pass. (They were supposed to interrogate the half-dragon captive and learn this, but the cleric decided to rather slay the captive!) Namzeru, the reeve (or sheriff) of this town, has been spending a lot of time at Serpent’s Pass.

Namzeru was operating outside the bounds of his authority, making illegal weapons and creating an army. Recently he has been visiting the temple at Serpent’s Pass, he is definitely hiding something there.

Mera the innkeeper calls the town “Serpent’s Ass”, says it’s a real dump.

They were strongly warned against using any magic in Serpent’s Pass, to keep a low profile if possible. It’s full of Tiamat followers. It is a large town, much larger and more crowded than Ashfall.

When they got there they found it was a ruined large city, built in the valley beneath three large hills, and surrounded by a tent town of poor and desperate people. They spotted Namzeru trading something with a robed figure. The robed figure disappeared into the crowds and they gave chase to Namzeru, who was supernaturally fast.

The streets were mostly dirt paths but there are some cobbled streets still intact when they got deeper into town. They eventually caught Namzeru who confessed he was trying to get into the large temple in the middle of town, he had some valuable treasure hidden there.

They escorted him into the temple and found some imprisoned Halfling slaves, who they rescued. Namzeru managed to escape by melding into the stone wall. The party killed some priests they found in the temple, but were attacked by a copper dragon.

When they defeated the dragon they found it had also been magically dominated, the same way the Beholder had been.

Namzeru reappeared with his family, a wife and two daughters. They were still Elves. He had been hiding them in the temple.

On closer inspection the dead beholder seemed to be the victim of magic. In the hole where it’s central eye used to be were devilish runes carved into the flesh. It was written in Infernal and was a spell of domination. Also, it’s skin was made from thick scales, each one as long as a human torso. Perhaps it could be forged into armour? The smaller eye stalks continue dto twitch and blink, even after being removed from the body.

A narrow tunnel led deeper into the cave. It was very narrow and twisted and turned, forcing the party to crawl on hands and knees at times.

It opened into a small room which widend into a huge wall painted with blue and red angular patterns. They are slowly shifting, the party could hear the clicking of gears and cogs from behind the wall.

A male and female wearing ornate red and black armour stood in the room. They are both very attractive but with a hint of devil-like sinister danger. The cleric and paladin feel a wave of evil from them. They have fawning slaves, filthy emaciated creatures with red eyes and a mouth full of fangs. Several boulder-like creatures are standing near the wall, and they step backwards and are suddenly indistinguishable from any of the other boulders in the room.

The devils speak in Infernal.
“You are not ready to be here, outsiders. Come back later.” One of them gestured and a crude staircase formed against the wall, which led back to the surface.

The party decided not to fight them and left the cave.

They were attacked by a 20’ tall shambling humanoid covered with bulging pustules that randomly exploded some disgusting goop. The halfling was physically deformed by a gaze attack of this giant creature, and also suffered some temporary madness after a pustule exploded onto him. (They later learned that these creatures were once noble giants that Tiamat had cursed.)

Back in Ashfall, the historian Jamas Freeve was trying to get the locals to pronounce an Elvish name. Someone in the party recognised it as Celasaer Galinor, which means “Gentle Morning Flower”.
This was apparently an Elf that used to live in this area. No one can remember seeing “it” for a few years now. They assume “it” used to live in the forest. Jamas is very interested in meeting this Elf.

The blacksmith next door to the inn was abandoned and useless to the party, who had hoped to forge the chainmail and Beholder scales into some armour. They put the word out in town they were looking for a blacksmith. One of the town hunters claimed he heard the sound of hammering coming from Namzeru the half-dragon’s empty tower, and wagons of covered weapons had been leaving the tower at strange hours.

The tower was a ramshackle affair, made of mismatched stone and only having a single iron door which shocked and threw back any creature not of Draconic blood. The cleric used magic to part the stone and taking advantage of Namzeru and his thugs being out of the area, the party broke in and found a drunk and very unusual looking Elf. He was extremely muscular with a shaved head and many tattoos. He is Celasaer Galinor, “Gentle Morning Flower”, one of the last known surviving Elves. He is also a blacksmith, held captive by Namzeru.

Inside was full of blacksmithing equipment, but before they could look around too closely, Namzeru and his half-dragon gang arrived by magical portals. They could pass through stone and attacked the party with strange iron devices that shot balls of lead and caused explosions.

After defeating the fallen angels, the gnome Kylen fell into some kind of deep sleep that no one could wake him from.Rinas Tonell (The Soothsayer) said he would watch over him, and also let the party know when the pool had refilled. (Each time the pool charged an item with magic, it emptied a little.)Ruk Bearclaw had also taken some wounds from the fallen angel’s final frenzied attack, but appeared to be suffering no ill effects.

Leaving the tower they encountered some travelers in the dry river. They looked like monks or pilgrims, and had some scrawny goats with them.
They acted a little suspiciously at first, trying to hide the fact they had buried something in the river bed, and also pulling on gloves as soon as they spotted the party.

After some discussion, they took off the gloves and revealed a tattoo of a blue bird with burning wings. They claimed to be followers of the “Failed Phoenix”, which Keyleth soon realised was in fact her own deity, Habbakuk. They said the Failed Phoenix was trapped in mortal form somewhere in this realm, describing visions of a vaguely bird-like humanoid.

These travelers were looking for an ocean, hoping this dry river would lead them there.

They traveled back to Ashfall without incident. They approached the village from the ridge, and from their elevated position they could see the tower the Half-Dragon Reeve lived in, but it was dark and quiet. They also could see a small forest of dense trees and thick overgrowth. Some villagers were sneaking into the forest, carrying bags of some kind.

Following the villagers into the forest revealed they were emptying bags of old food. Also, they were conducting secret rituals in the names of the “Failed Phoenix” and the “Lady of Fire”, which were actually confused manifestations of Habbakuk and Sune.

Emig and Keyleth were revered as prophets.

In town they had a late night meeting with Mera, the innkeeper of The Old Wizard Inn. Emig challenged her to a drinking competion, which she lost by passing out after one shot.

She told them they should try pass themselves off as “Slayers”, freelance monster killers who traveled about dealing with troublesome monstrous creatures. It was the only way they could explain themselves, they stand out from normal folk and would attract unwanted attention from the authorities.

A trader arrived in town the next morning. He had good news for the village: some heretics in the capital had been caught and sacrificed to Tiamat. There was now an overflow of blood sacrifice to Tiamat and the town blood sacrifice was reduced to once every ten days. (An obsidian statue of Tiamat stands in the center of the town, and villagers have to cut themselves on the sharp edges and give blood as an offering to Tiamat.)

The Half-Dragon reeve Namzeru has left the area, no one is sure where or for how long.

A wandering historian has taken up residence at the inn, a tall and heavily-built man wearing colourful robes. He has numerous satchels containing papers and writing instruments as well as other books and scrolls. He keeps more material upstairs in a wooden case. He calls himself Jamas Freeve and claims to be assembling a history of recent events around the realm, many things were lost after the war.

He says he lost his companions on the trip here. They had the feeling of being watched for days and then woke up in the night to a barrage of magical attacks. At the advice of his guards, he fled into the night and carried on running until he stumbled across Ashfall. He is going to spend some time in this area. Mera suggests the party should do a few jobs for the historian, starting with investigating what happened to his party.

Despite no one liking the historian and his bossy attitude, they grudgingly agreed to search for his lost companions. He says he has influence in the more civilised areas of the realm.

They found his dead guards, and followed tracks to a cave deep underground and fought and killed a Beholder.

They discovered a magical pool of water that imbued common weapons and shields with magical power. It also appears the pool is sucking all the water out of the surrounding land.

They fought off and destroyed animated suits of armour and magical flying swords. They discovered a corridor full of bottles of alcohol stacked against the walls. Finally they confronted some fallen angels that were somehow responsible for the fall of the fortress above them. They killed the fallen angels and took their corrupted maces. Keyleth suspects the weapons will slowly lose their corruption once removed from the fallen angels.

There are still some suspicions about the gnome calling himself “The Soothsayer”. While asleep the party tried to move him and it was physically impossible to lift him. And he wants their “useless” treasure, any gold coins or gems he greedily accepts. He also urged them to kill anything they found in the dungeon.

They were dressed in ragged clothing and torn ceremonial robes of some sort. All their weapons and armour and magical equipment was gone. They were also wearing bloody bandages and each of them had numerous scars that hadn’t been there before. It also seemed their hair was longer and the dragonborn’s scales had darkened. (Indicating some time had passed….)

There was no sign of Nephreus (tiefling warlock) or Kylen (forest gnome arcane trickster), but there were two sets of footprints leading away from the ash pile….

The sky above them was filled with dark black storm clouds and something hidden above them was burning, filling the air with a fine rain of ash.

Digging around the large ash pile revealed a few simple weapons and a shield with a crude image of Sune painted on it.

Soon they heard the sound of approaching farmers. They spotted some strange wolf-like creatures circling around the farmers. The party rushed down to defend the farmers and their cattle, and found they were battling wolves with 8 legs and 8 eyes! Despite the disturbing feeling these creatures created, they managed to keep focused and quickly killed all the creatures.

Talking with the farmers they learnt that the pile of ash was called “corpse hill” and was apparently a large pile of bones, possibly of a company of elves from “the war”. The farmers also thought they were mad for being on top of corpse hill. They also discovered this area was called “the Ashlands” and nearby was a village called “Ashfall”.

They also learnt their gold and gems were now worthless, this was a barter society.

There is a large stone road the farmers call “the road” and is made from some kind of stone that softly vibrates, keeping any ash from settling on it.

The dragonborn was treated with great respect by the locals, bowing to him and calling “my lord” and one of the “guardians”. The Halfling, on the other hand, was treated like a slave.

Also somewhat disturbing is the way people greet each other with “Hail Tiamat”, and use colourful language like “Sune’s buttocks” and “Habbakuk’s balls”.

Ashfall is a small town with a few hundred people living in stone buildings. There is an inn called “The Old Wizard” and is run by a stern young human woman called Mera, with 2 half-orc twin brothers (Faress & Helmet) as security.

At the inn, Emig the dragonborn was treated like royalty and Walter the Halfling was bossed around like a slave. Some locals had recently made a trade and got some new instruments, which none of them could play. Walter showed the “band” a few simple chords and is trying to teach them.

When everyone had gone home Mera asked them to get out of town for a few days. The reeve Namzeru (a black half-dragon) and his gang of dragonborn “guardians” (aka thugs) would be making a trip through town to do inspections and collect tribute, if the characters were in town there would be trouble as they stood out and attracted unwanted attention.

In the centre of town is a well and a shrine to Tiamat. Villagers have to cut their hands on the sharp rock each day to pay blood tribute to Tiamat.

Mera asked the party to travel a day out of town and investigate a farm that had gone silent. On the hike there they discovered a note that read “It is not a farm. Make sure there are no witnesses.”

When they reached the “farm” they discovered it was actually the ruins of some fortress, rubble strewn all over the area and only one watchtower left standing. Outside the tower they fought and killed some strange reptilian humanoids with swords instead of arms who appeared to have attacked the tower but had been fought off.

Inside the tower they discovered six dead humans, and locked in a cage on the top floor was a curious old Halfling dressed in animal furs decorated with bones, teeth and claws. He introduces himself as Rinas Tonell, but is known as “The Soothsayer”. He claims there is a secret underground part of the tower where a great secret is hidden.

Keyleth the cleric gets a strange feeling in the tower, for a second it felt like there was a black shadow and spreading dark wings behind her.

The party got aboard a flying castle belong to some giants. They ended up fighting and killing a vampire and Rezmir the half-black dragon, taking the Black Dragon Mask from her. They also fought Rath Modar, a red wizard, but he managed to escape. Finally they spoke with the giants and killed a white dragon, Glazhael the Cloudchaser.

The giants dropped the party and all the stolen treasure into a courtyard in the city of Waterdeep.

The party meet the council who governed Waterdeep.

Their first mission was to travel to the Frozen North and rescue a member of the Arcane Brotherhood, a female tiefling sorcerer. They rescued her and killed another white dragon, Arauthator “Old White Death”.

Then they followed the trail of Varram the White, a dwarf member of the cult who was rumoured to have the White Dragon Mask. They tracked him to the Serpent Hills and into an ancient tomb, which was being used by Yuan-Ti to conduct divination rituals. They learnt Varram had lost the White Dragon Mask, but was no safely in the hands of the cult. They attempted to kill Varram, but he was carried away by cultists before they could get to him.

Then they used a portal to travel to a forest where a renegade elven prince named Neronvain was wreaking havoc with a green dragon, Chuth. They killed the dragon and the elven prince, who was wearing the Green Dragon Mask. It took some time, but eventually they managed to get the mask off.

After some other adventures, they learnt the cult was based in the Well of Dragons and are currently making their way in that direction.

The caravan crossing the river was attacked by a Dragon. The Dragon seemed to be causing chaos rather than actually trying to destroy the caravan. During the chaos, the wagons of the cultists made their escape from the rest of the caravan, heading into the Fields of the Dead.

The caravan was basically ruined, and most of the merchants decided to rather take their goods into the nearby city of Baldur’s Gate, instead of carrying on further north toward Waterdeep.

The Harper agent who was supposed to meet never showed up, and the party decided to pursue the cultists in the Fields of the Dead. They followed the trail all the way across the Fields of the Dead and into a dark, dank swamp. In the swamp they found a small camp and some canoes, and met a renegade lizardfolk named Snapjaw. He guided them across the swamp lake and took them straight to Castle Naerytar.

The castle was inhabited by the Cult of the Dragon, specifically the Black Dragon company. They had subjugated Snapjaw’s lizardfolk tribe, and allied with the swamp’s bullywugs.

The party snuck in, disguised as cultists, had investigated the castle. They discovered a female half-black dragon named Rezmir was the leader of the Cult. She had two companions, an elf named Dralmorrer Borngray who was Wearer of Purple (very high-ranking cultists) but also a member of Eldreth Valuuthra, which is a group of elf supremacists dedicated to removing humanity from Faerun.
The leader of the bullywugs was a shaman named Pharblex Spattergoo, who was ultimately killed in the lizardfolk rebellion.
There was also a Red Wizard named Azbara Jos, who was killed by the party in the rebellion.

They were tasked with cleaning out rooms, had to partake in a ritual of Tiamat, and eventually led a rebellion of the lizardfolk against the bullywugs. They found out where the treasure was going, found the word that activated a magical portal, discovered some dragon eggs hidden in a secret room, found evidence of a female dragonborn named Sora Kimbatuul, got sprayed with acid, and eventually escaped the castle using the portal…

… where they arrived at a peaceful, serene Hunting Lodge in the middle of a forest on chilly mountains. By now they have an idea of what the Cult of the Dragon is planning. They are amassing a massive treasure to try and summon Tiamat out of the Nine Hells and into the mortal realm. The Cult of the Dragon and the Red Wizards of Thay have made an alliance.

They were greeted by a sadistic, demon-worshipping four-armed troll. He escorted them to the lodge, and then disappeared back to his lair around the back of the lodge. They explored the lodge, had a bath, ate some real food, drunk beer and wine, and also discovered some prisoners in the basement, one of the prisoners was a cleric and a member of the Order of the Gauntlet, a group of paladins and clerics who fanatically fight evil.
They learnt the leader of the lodge was a female half-elf named Talis, and this lodge was used by the White Dragon wing of the Cult. Talis had just lost a promotion to a dwarf named Varram, he now has the white dragon mask, whatever that is.
Speaking to some servants in the house they learnt that the cult recently murdered the noble who used to own this lodge and took it over.
They also met Zasheida Jassan, a member of the Zhentarim, the Black Network. She says the Zhentarim will not work with the Cult of the Dragon, and will possibly even publicly stand against them.
Also working undercover in the lodge was a Harper agent, the very same one who gave them the dragon egg mission way back in Southpoint. He was disguised as a carpenter but had dropped a hammer into his mouth by accident. He had tracked the Zhentarim agent here and asked the party to recover her journal that he had thrown into the well.
The gnome rogue dived into the well and recovered the journal, which confirmed the Zhentarim didn’t want to work with the Cult of the Dragon.
During his dive the troll had come out to investigate. The halfling ranger sent his badger out as a distraction, unfortunately the troll caught the badger and tore it apart. The party attacked and nearly defeated the troll, but it escaped before they could slay it. Gargoyles and a Helmed Horror were approaching to also attack the party, but Talis the White appeared and asked to parley with the party. She offered them a deal where they would leave the lodge unharmed, free most of the prisoners, and in return the party would travel to the nearby village of Parnast, find a flying castle and stop Rezmir delivering the treasure.

An investigation of the towns graveyard revealed the body of the previous priest had been removed. The attack on the town was a diversion while this happened.

A shopkeeper’s daughter is attracted to the half-elf Nailo, she first lured him into the basement of her father’s shop by saying there was a “rat problem”. Nailo has managed to resist her charms this far.

An incident in the Rusty Dragon Inn showed that relations between the ex-adventurer innkeep Ameiko, and her noble father Lonjiku are severely strained.

Sheriff Hemlock went to Beregost and petitioned for extra soldiers after the goblin attacks. He left the party to look after Southpoint while he was away.

Ameiko disappeared, and a note found in her room led the party to the Glassworks, a large factory on the edge of town. The note was from Tsuto, her half-elf half-brother, and suggested their father was somehow involved in the goblin attack.

Inside the Glassworks they found and killed several goblins. They also found Lonjiku’s dead body covered in glass. It appears the goblins had tortured him and the glass workers by covering them in hot glass.

Tsuto and two gargoyles appeared and attacked the party. Once defeated, his journal revealed he was in love with Nualia. Nualia was the adopted daughter of the old priest who apparently died in the fire with him. Now it seems she wants to rid herself of her celestial “taint” and has some kind of hidden lair beneath the glassworks.

Before the party was able to investigate further, the sheriff returned to town with an urgent message for them from a Harper agent.

They were tasked with joined a large trade caravan making its way northwards up the coast toward Baldur’s Gate. While travelling with the caravan they were to uncover which wagons were being used by the Cult of the Dragon to transport stolen loot.

At this point the party split up. The tiefling, dragonborn, and half-elf were joined by a new party member, a halfling ranger. The gnome and the dwarf didn’t join the caravan, but instead took a boat.

There were several adventures while travelling with the wagons. One of them involved meeting an ancient elf prince who is cursed to remain in the form of a golden stag. This elf now travels with elven merchants on the caravan.

They have reached the river Chionthar where the wagons cross, and this is where the Harper agent is supposed to meet them to learn which wagons belong to the cult.

Here be goblins!

Finally the day of the opening of the new temple had come, in conjunction with the start of the Spring season.
The parties desire to return to the cave and rescue the human prisoner they had left in the hands of the goblins and their bugbear leader was delayed because of minor problems in the town of Southpoint. Rains flooded the streets, the gates were closed after a robbery, Nailo the half-elf cleric and Emig the dragonborn paladin were asked to attend some ceremonies at the temple, and they knew needed a well-rested team at full strength to venture back into the goblin lair, especially if more goblins had returned.
During a bar brawl (partially instigated by the dragonborn’s excessive drinking and the dwarven sorcerer Adrik Ironfist’s incessant arguing about anything and everything) several patrons broke some furniture and gave poor Rowan a bloody nose. Henk Halfblood (literally) threw half his guests out into the street, and suddenly some of the upstairs rooms became available. Some chose to take these new rooms, others stayed in the cheaper bunk room.

On the day of the festival Henk Halfblood told the party this was their chance to impress the townsfolk and try make some new friends. Townsfolk still looked at them with a little suspicion, they weren’t used to such strange characters walking their streets. He told them they needed to leave their weapons and armour in the inn, as fighting was prohibited in the streets during the celebrations.
Kylen, the gnome arcane trickster, decided to take a dagger with him, hiding it under his clothes.

At the festival they spent most of the day taking part in the various games around town. At an archery contest, Sojourner the human competed against the gnome, and she emerged victorious. They crowd convinced the elf to take a shot, and caused much laughter at his terrible shots.

They took part in betting on lizard races, where the gnome won with his ability to speak to small animals, understanding the creature was hungry. It was later found out that a small betting syndicate had overfed some of the lizards, making them sluggish and slow.

The fun and games were interrupted by a bunch of goblins attacking the town. Groups of them had snuck into the town during the celebrations and suddenly launched an attack. With most of the party having no weapons or armour, they were forced to improvise to repel the goblin invasion, weapons included table legs for clubs, and in the case of the dragonborn, an entire table!
They also saved the life of a noble, who promised them a reward later on, and seemed to take a particular shine to the only female member of the party, the human fighter Sojourner.

They were offered a free week at the Rusty Dragon Inn, run by an ex-adventurer and exotic outlander named Ameiko Kajitsu, the same inn the noble is staying at.

While they were making plans to return to the goblin cave, still trying to solve the mystery of the human prisoner they left behind, a wandering Elf scout returned to Southpoint. Her name is Shalelu Andosana, and she patrols the lands around the town, mostly keeping an eye on the local goblin tribes. She had traveled a little further than usual, investigating some kobold activity in the area, kobolds and bandits had joined forces with a strange dragon cult and were raiding and looting towns and farms.

She also reported some disturbing local news. It seems the goblin tribes were being united by a mysterious power, sending them out on raids. She reported a small peat farm had been burned to the ground, and all the people living and working there had been killed. She tracked the goblins who did this to an abandoned watchtower, but they were too powerful for her to tangle with on her own, and were led by a brute of a bugbear.

The party were enraged by the bugbear’s actions, and immediately set off on a mission of vengeance! They tracked the goblins and bugbear down, and in a desperate battle on the ruined roof of the watchtower, they managed to slay all of them.